British Airways closes its Amsterdam lounge

I’m not sure if this was already officially confirmed or not, but London Air Travel (which seems to be written by a senior BA employee who has access to internal documents) has now reported the formal closure of the British Airways lounge in Amsterdam.

The closure was already informally announced. When the Singapore lounge reopened a few weeks ago, British Airways said that ‘all of our lounges are now open again’. Since Amsterdam was still closed at that point, the inference was clear.

The British Airways lounge backs onto the Aspire lounge at Schiphol, so it is possible that the two will be knocked through to create a bigger space.

BA passengers have been using the Aspire lounge, which has effectively blocked this lounge for Priority Pass users since it is now at capacity for much of the day.

There are now just three British Airways lounges in Europe, at Geneva (review here), Milan Linate and Rome Fiumicino.

Heaven knows what sort of strategy is at work here, especially as Amsterdam is one of the busiest British Airways destinations and it is up against KLM and its massive Crown Lounge, reviewed here.

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How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (March 2023)

As a reminder, here are the four options to get FREE airport lounge access via a credit card:

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with two free Priority Pass cards, one for you and one for a supplementary cardholder. Each card admits two so a family of four gets in free. You get access to all 1,300 lounges in the Priority Pass network – search it here.

You also get access to Plaza Premium, Delta Air Lines and Eurostar lounges.  Our American Express Platinum review is here. You can apply here.

If you have a small business, consider American Express Business Platinum instead.

Until 30th March 2023, the sign up bonus on American Express Business Platinum is increased to 120,000 Membership Rewards points – click here. T&C apply, see the application forms for details.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for the first year. It comes with a Priority Pass card loaded with four free visits to any Priority Pass lounge – see the list here.

Additional lounge visits are charged at £20.  You get four more free visits for every year you keep the card.  

There is no annual fee for Amex Gold in Year 1 and you get a 20,000 points sign-up bonus.  Full details are in our American Express Preferred Rewards Gold review here.

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard gets you get a free LoungeKey card, allowing you access to the LoungeKey network.  Guests are charged at £20 although it may be cheaper to pay £60 for a supplementary credit card for your partner.

The card has a fee of £195 and there are strict financial requirements to become a HSBC Premier customer.  Full details are in my HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard review.

PS. You can find all of HfP’s UK airport lounge reviews – and we’ve been to most of them – indexed here.